brevity is the soul of wit
by earlyable
Summary: For the 'Pairing Diversity Boot Camp Challenge' a collection of drabbles, each with a set and specified prompt. Each chapter will have a different pairing. Latest is Lucius/Draco.
1. Early morning cheerfulness

**A/N: So this will be a multi-drabble story all stemming from a list of prompts Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges under the topic **_**Pairing Diversity Boot Camp Challenge**_**. I stumbled across it and it really is amazing. This chapter is for the prompt: **_**early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious **_**and the pairing is Hermione/Ron.**

"Hermione, please go away. It's not even eight o'clock in the morning." Ron grabbed a pillow and used it ineffectively to protect his eyes from the light coming through the recently uncovered window. It was ineffective because it was soon ripped from his hands by the girl who then proceeded to hit him several times with it.

"Get. Up. Ronald." Hermione said, each word punctuated with a whack on the head with a pillow.

"Go away you crazy woman." Ron waved his hands above his head. "Your early morning cheerfulness can be… what's another way to put very annoying?"

"Very annoying…" Hermione replied, halting in her attack to ponder his question. "Extremely obnoxious." She said finally before resuming her attack on him with vigour. "Get up you lazy git!" She shouted as Ron stumbled out of bed.

"Alright, alright, I'm up!" Ron ran a hand through his hair. "Why is it so important that you wake me up at this unholy hour?"

"Because Ron, it's the 27th of July." Hermione made this sound as if pronouncing the date answered Ron's question.

"What in the name of Merlin's trousers does the date have anything to do with it?" Ron's anger was coming through at being woken up at seven thirty in the morning.

"Today's the day we go and get Harry from the Dursley's, Ronald." Hermione sounded exasperated at Ron's pigheadedness.

"Oh," Ron said weakly. "Right."

Hermione threw a t-shirt at him. "Get dressed and come downstairs for breakfast. We're going over the plan one last time."

"Hermione," Ron said just before she left the room. "Do they really think his going to agree to this plan?"

"I don't know, Ron." Hermione sighed. "All I know is that he's is going to throw a massive fit when he works it out."

Hermione walked out and, with a sigh, Ron started to get dressed.


	2. Retrospectively

**A/N: The pairing is Fat Lady/Violet (the two portraits) and the prompt is: _retrospectively._**

* * *

"Darling, do you think perhaps we overdid it this time?" Violet asked as she tiptoed quietly into the Fat Lady's portrait, trying not to make too much noise.

"Shush, not so loud Violet, dear; my head is still aching." The Fat Lady put a hand to her forehead, wincing. A bunch of stupid children began to pound up the corridor. Violet let out a whimper and hurried away to her own frame.

"Traitor," the Fat Lady whispered after her. The students came to a panting halt in front of the portrait hole.

"Abstinence," they chanted.

"Yes, yes dears, just not so loud." The portrait muttered as she prepared to swing forwards without emptying her canvas stomach. A sharp eyed second year peered at her.

"You've been drinking, haven't you?" The girl shrieked excitedly. The Fat Lady whimpered softly and put her hand to her forehead again.

"Yes, just keep your voices down." She whispered. Hermione, separating herself from the group, approached the Gryffindor guard.

"Retrospectively," she began loudly, quieting her voice after the Fat Lady's whispered protests. "Perhaps now you won't drink so much after reflecting upon the consequences."

"Oh no, that won't stop her. She does this every year." Percy's pompous voice echoed down the corridor. The Fat Lady winced at his overly loud speech.

"Alright dears, go through." The Fat Lady swung her portrait forwards just to get rid of the brats who climbed through into the common room, leaving the corridor blissfully silent.

"I'm never drinking this again." She moaned, just as another group of students approached, their laughter echoing ahead of them.


	3. Antiques

**A/N: This pairing is Draco/Lucius and the prompt is: **_**antiques**_**. By the way, this is set when Draco is about six, so Voldemort has been dead around five years.**

* * *

"Now Draco, best behaviour," Lucius told his son.

"Yes, Father," the boy replied obediently as the two walked into Borgin and Burke's. Once inside, Draco could barely hide his interest; there were so many interesting objects. He glanced around the shop as Lucius murmured quietly to Borgin about 'things that were a bit too sensitive to have lying around the house.' Draco was peering around the store, trying not to be a nuisance. He really didn't want to be scolded in public and wanted to be punished in private even less. The only reason he was with his father in the first place was because his mother had a party she needed to attend.

He looked around and spotted label. He knew better than to touch anything in this store, especially with all the creepy stories his father had told him before they entered. He sounded out the letters to see what the word on the label said.

"An-ti-ks," he mouthed to himself. He kept at it for a while until finally, "Antiques." He pronounced proudly after five minutes of hard work.

Borgin came up quietly behind him while Lucius was signing the Agreement of Sale contract at the counter. He watched as the boy spelled out the word and then looked closely at the wares without touching them. _His father taught him well. _Borgin thought. The grimy old man moved forward to entice the child into asking his father to buy something when Lucius came up behind him.

"Draco, you haven't touched anything, have you?" He asked sternly.

"No, Father," Draco answered dutifully, turning to the older man.

"Good, what are you looking at now?" Lucius asked, exasperated, as the boy turned back to the shelf of antiques.

"Antiques, Father, I read it myself." Draco responded, sounding slightly smug but knowing better than to be obvious about it in front of his Father.

"Indeed, which one would you like, Draco?" Lucius asked. If it preoccupied the child for a while then he would gladly part with a few galleons or more. The boy looked up and down the shelf before settling on a sapphire brooch. Lucius checked to make sure that the brooch didn't do anything dangerous before turning to his son and raising an eyebrow.

"For Mother," he explained, seeing his Father's expression. Lucius nodded at him for his thoughtfulness towards his Mother and paid Borgin the three galleons that the brooch was worth.

"Back home, Draco, hold on to my arm." Lucius informed the boy and, once he had a secure grip, Apparated them away.


End file.
